Trails, rails and true tales at Abilene festival

ABILENE — People looking for a glimpse into the Old West of Abilene are finding it this weekend in Old Abilene Town. Trails, Rails and Tales began Friday and runs through today.

This year the festival was particularly significant, commemorating 150 years since the first cattle were brought up the Chisholm Trail, loaded onto a rail car Sept. 5, 1887, and shipped east.

It meant a lot to the Abilene High School Class of 1967, whose members were out in force for the 50th reunion. The year they graduated was the 100th anniversary of the Chisholm Trail, said Linda Booth-Nelson.

Class members had gathered down the street from the Old Garfield School by 10 a.m. to watch the parade. Horses and riders and horse-drawn wagons went down city streets, followed by a small herd of longhorn cattle. Cowboys drove the cattle the length of the parade route and into holding pens at Old Abilene Town where, at about 2 p.m., they were loaded into train cars.

Janet Whitehair Cooper, who organized the reunion, said 62 classmates, with 34 spouses, had registered from as far as Georgia, South Carolina, Idaho, Texas, California and Pennsylvania. G.L. Hoffman, senior class president, came from Minneapolis, Minn. There were 113 members in the class, and 25 had died, so Cooper said she was pleased with the turnout.

History recreated

Besides the trail and rails, there were tales aplenty, many of them authentic.

Authenticity seemed to be the key word throughout Old Abilene Town.

Joyce Thierer performed as Georgiana Jackson, cattle drover and rancher, and Ann Birney as Julia Archibald Homes, the first woman to climb Pike’s Peak in 1858.

Thierer and Birney offered workshops in recreating historical figures through Ride Into History and through Emporia State University, where Thierer taught history.

“People come to these festivals not only to have a good time but to learn,” Thierer said.

Her character, Jackson, told of driving a herd of cattle to market and the trouble she had with some of the cowboys. Jackson was a composite of several woman, she said, but based closely on their letters and deeds.

Details authentic

Thierer is scrupulous in her attention to detail. Everything is authentic: the clothes, the props, the language.

“We are not re-enactors,” Thierer said. “What we do is thoroughly research our characters. We take an incredible pride in getting our information accurate and telling a good story at the same time.”

“His cowboy boots are modern,” she said of one cowboy who sauntered past.

Thierer’s own boots were the old style, square toe, and came up nearly to her knee. Her spurs were the quiet kind, not the “jingle-bobs” that could spook the cows.

Several of the other performers were former students. Nolan and Monica Sump portrayed Joseph McCoy and his wife, who had the idea to bring cattle up from Kansas to Abilene to ship east. Nolan Sump, an alumnus of Bethany College, said he took Thierer’s class at Emporia 17 years ago. Everything has to be correct, he said, dressed in his 1870s-style suit with a string tie. Monica wore sky-blue cotton with lace at the collar and cuffs of her long sleeves and a proper lady’s hat.

Not all authentic

There were plenty of re-enactors, including the 9th and 10th Division Buffalo Soldiers, a U.S. Cavalry demonstration, Pawnee Bill’s Wild West Show, and Native American educators, all on today’s schedule as well.

Not quite everything, though, is as it was in the Old West. In historic Abilene, shootouts were rare, but in modern Old Abilene Town, gunfights happen regularly. Not to worry, the sheriff gets angry at the undertaker and orders the “corpses” to get up and take themselves to jail, which they do, depriving the undertaker of business.

The main stage will feature cowboy and western music most of this afternoon, following the Sumps as the McCoys at noon, with performances of Sons of the Pioneers at 6 p.m., Michael Martin Murphey at 7 and Ken Spurgeon presents Home of the Range at 8:30.

There will be other activities starting at high noon throughout the grounds.

A one-day pass costs $10, $5 for children ages 6 through 16, and includes almost all shows, historic performances and talks.